Mind RACES: from Reactive to Anticipatory Cognitive Embodied Systems

Mind RACES is a three-year EC funded project (Sixth Framework Programme - Information Society and Technologies - Cognitive Systems) involving 8 Partners. It is mainly focused on the concept of Anticipation. The project started on October 1st 2004 and was formally completed on December 2007. The MindRACES website will be maintained and continuously updated anyway, and it will include novel work of the consortium on prediction and anticipation.

The general goal of the Mind RACES project
is to investigate different anticipatory cognitive mechanisms and architectures in order to build Cognitive Systems endowed with the ability to predict the outcome of their actions, to build a model of future events, to control their perception anticipating future stimuli and to emotionally react to possible future scenarios. Such Anticipatory Cognitive Systems will contribute to the successful implementation of the desired ambient intelligence.

Anticipatory Cognitive Science is a research field that ensembles artificial intelligence,
biology, psychology, neurology, engineering and philosophy in order to build anticipatory cognitive systems that
are able to face human tasks with the same anticipatory capabilities and performance. In deep:
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of mind and intelligence, embracing philosophy, psychology,
artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology. Its intellectual origins are in the mid-1950s
when researchers in several fields began to develop theories of mind based on complex representations and
computational procedures. Its organizational origins are in the mid-1970s when the Cognitive Science Society
was formed and the journal Cognitive Science began. Since then, more than sixty universities in North America, Europe, Asia,
and Australia have established cognitive science programs, and many others have instituted courses in cognitive science.